Bahamas Health Travel Visa
The Ministry of Tourism and Aviation notes the many false and erroneous allegations made in the public domain concerning the commencement and operation of the Travel Health Visa.
Here are the facts.
In order to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health recommended that all persons travelling into The Bahamas from an overseas destination, take a RT-PCR test administered within five (5)days of their arrival.
When the Ministry of Tourism approached the airlines (American, Delta, JetBlue, etc.) about screening their passengers,prior to boarding a plane to The Bahamas, to ensure they had the right test (RT-PCR), with the right result (Negative), within the right time frame (S days before arrival), from an accredited
lab, the airlines insisted that their check in personnel would not be able to fulfill the required screening. In fact, one airline stated that if they had to screen the PCR tests of passengers prior to boarding a flight to The Bahamas, they would simply stop flying to The Bahamas.
The airlines recommended that we implement a system whereby the passengers could upload their test results, which would then be reviewed by the Bahamas Government, and a travel health visa issued indicating to the airline personnel that the entry requirements to The Bahamas had been met.
As such, the Bahamas Health Travel Visa was rolled out, in its current format, on 1 November 2021.
Developing that website, prior to the Tourism Re-opening, was a huge undertaking. Six weeks was the time frame and the software developer, Think Simple, met the deadline.
Prior to the launch of the website (travel.gov.bs), the Government decided that fees were to be charged for the Rapid Antigen Test that all residents and citizens were mandated to take upon their return to The Bahamas. Additionally fees were to be charged for the mandatory health insurance all visitors were required to have while in The Bahamas. Fees were also to be charged to cover the start up costs of the website and fees were to be charged to cover its estimated operating costs.
Given the tight time frames involved, the Ministry undertook a sole sourcing arrangement as opposed to an open-bid process which would have taken three (3) months or longer to complete.
Tourism was re-opening in five days, the website was going live in five days and there simply was not enough time to develop and issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) and then wait for and evaluate the proposals. This is not unusual in circumstances such as this; indeed, even the imminent Public Procurement Act makes provision for limited bidding in similar exceptional circumstances.
On the basis, that Kanoo was, and is, an established electronic payment provider who had previously worked with the Ministry's online software developer, the Ministry engaged Kanoo on commercial terms that were and are withinthe guidelines set by the Ministry of Finance for its third party revenue collectors. Further, the relationship of Kanoo to the software developer meant that the set up of the electronic payment system for the health visa would be able to be facilitated within the tight timeframe.
To say that Kanoa was selected because of some political affiliation between the governing party and its shareholders is wholly untrue. No such consideration was ever a part of the decision making process.
It must be stated that consistent with the established policy for third party payment providers, there was no upfront fee. The service fees paid per transaction of 1.5 percent are well within the fee structure established by the Ministry of Finance. It is consistent with what is paid to other approved third party payment providers such as Cash 'n Go, SunCash, lslandPay and Omni Financial.
In addition, to say that Kanoo is somehow holding and controlling the funds earned by the Travel Health Visa is completely erroneous. The commentators clearly do not understand how these electronic payment providers operate, nor do they understand the merchant processing relationship that is established once these types of arrangements are agreed upon. Consistent with all the other similar arrangements, the providers hold the funds temporarily before they are remitted to the government.
In this particular instance, when the funds are earned, they are deposited into a Ministry of Tourism account with Kanoo. At all times, that account is controlled and monitored by the accounting department within the Ministry of Tourism who has online access to that account at all times. No funds are ever transferred out of that account without the express permission of the Ministry of Tourism.
All funds received by the Travel Health Visa are, after reconciliation, booked through the Consolidated fund as expenditure and revenue within the Treasury's general ledger system. To be clear, there are no missing funds and all cash proceeds are accessible and under the sole custody and direct control of Ministry ofTourism personnel at all times.
Up to 31 March 2021, the following funds were received from the Travel Health Visa and the following related expenditures were made
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